


Battle Scars

by Brachylagus_fandom



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 21:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8342629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Brachylagus_fandom
Summary: Lavender wakes up after the final battle at Fleur's house.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [softestlesbian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/softestlesbian/gifts).



> You mentioned Lavender/Fleur in your optional details and my brain latched onto them both being (or, in Lavender's case, starting the canon) beautiful. I hadn't thought of shipping them before, so thank you for introducing me to this.

The room where Lavender wakes up is lovely, clean and calm in a way that the Room of Requirement never managed to be, but its very existence tells her that something has gone horribly wrong. This ceiling is not the same shade of inoffensive off-white as that of the Hogwarts infirmary; the room is decorated in soft blues, not the red and gold of her dorm room; her home was destroyed in a raid a bit over six months prior, so this couldn't be her room there. Her wand is within easy grasp and Lavender is considering trying to hex her way out when Fleur walks in.

"Aren't you supposed to be in France?" The question is cold, almost clinical, and Lavender knows that subtlety was not her forte even before her year-long stint as one of the rebellion's tacticians. If the tone upsets Fleur, she doesn't show it; she only blinks, clearly having expected Lavender to have taken more than the minimum time to wake.

"Lavender," Fleur begins softly, being more polite than Lavender could have ever managed, "we are in France. This is my home."

"Hogwarts fell?" That would explain the battle that is the last thing she remembers before waking. Still, it feels wrong to even admit that as a possibility.

"Voldemort fell. The war's over." Lavender lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "It's been four days."

"Greyback attacked me." Lavender remembers the battle itself only vaguely, but no one else would claw her face off with their bare hands. "Can I see?" Fleur hands her a mirror. Looking at her reflection, Lavender is both horrified and moderately relieved; she can use both of her eyes, and none of the wounds are severe enough to merit continued treatment, but the red slashes that run down the left side of her face and neck are never going to fade. "I look hideous."

"You look brave." Lavender does not feel brave. Soon enough, she knows, trials will start, appearances will need to be made, and she will be facing all of this looking like  _ this _ .

"No one will look at me the same way. They'll think I'm damaged, that I'm useless." She's not useless like this, but anyone who hadn't been in Dumbledore's Army doesn't  _ know _ that, and she has a sinking feeling that many members of Dumbledore's Army are as damaged as she is or dead. "There's no way to cover these up."

"Wear your battle scars with pride, Lavender," Fleur says. "They are quite dashing on you. Maybe now people will look past your pretty face and see the mind underneath." Lavender takes a deep breath. Fleur's right; she has spent too much of her life being dismissed as a ditzy beauty queen, and it took a war for people to realize her mind is a thousand sharp razors poised to inflict as much damage as possible at a minimal risk to herself. Maybe people will see the steel now that there is no pretty lie to conceal them; maybe they won't, and she will be remembered as a girl whose life was ruined by Fenrir Greyback. Either way, nothing she does will matter unless she's brave enough to  _ do _ it, scars or no scars.

"Maybe they will." 


End file.
